Sir Patrick Stewart Is Returning to Star Trek for a New Series About Picard- "one thing that isn’t being considered (for the time being) is another series based on a former Trek franchise. As of now, the only one in development is the one featuring Stewart,"- CBS All Access announced Patrick Stewart will play Jean-Luc Picard in a new series for CBS All Access.- CBS called it a new chapter for the characterStewart called it "new dimensions"- At the announcement Stewart said "It may not be the Jean Luc you know and love. He may be a man who has been changed by his experiences...it will be, I promise you, something different....but it will come with the same love for the universe and our fans we had before."- Series will take place 20 years after Star Trek Nemesis- Alex Kurtzman leading a creative team that will also include James Duff (The Closer) , Akiva Goldsman (Star Trek: Discovery), Michael Chabon (John Carter, and a bunch of books), and Kirsten Beyer (Discovery)

The Live-Action Star Wars Show Will Reportedly Be Very Expensive- As part of a New York Times article about Disney president of marketing Ricky Strauss running its streaming service, were a few tidbits about the Jon Favreau run live action Star Wars show set seven years after Return of the Jedi.- the Star Wars series will run for 10 episodes, with an estimated budget for the series clocking in at a hefty $100 million, or pretty much $10 million an episode.

How to Watch

Apple just explained why it’s going to make original TV shows- On it's latest earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, "The cord cutting in our view is only going to accelerate and probably accelerate at a much faster rate than is widely thought," Cook said in a call with analysts on Tuesday- Apple TV units and revenue grew in the double digits- More third parties using Apple TV as Apple TV as their go-to-market device

What to Watch

Yahoo Finance launching live video streaming network this year- Sources tell Axios that Yahoo Finance is launching a full-day live video streaming network by the end of the year. The network will reportedly include 8-hours of live market and global financial news updates. Sources say the company is in talks with OTT providers and bundles about getting the content on platforms other than Yahoo's own distribution channels.

AMC is developing a sci-fi show based on Ken Liu’s short stories- AMC is developing an animated series called Pantheon based on the short stories of Ken Liu. Craig Silverstein, who created and produced AMC’s American revolution drama Turn, will serve as showrunner, producer, and writer. The network has a writer's room turning out a a whole season of scripts before deciding to green light or not.

Original Star Wars movies blocked from Disney streaming until 2024- Bloomberg reports that Disney sold the rights to broadcast and streaming rights to the first 6 Star Wars films to Turner Networks in 2016. That deal lasts until 2024. And Turner won't give up the rights. So Disney won't have those six movies available for its own streaming service set to launch in 2019.

U.S. adults now spend nearly 6 hours per day watching video- Nielsen reports US adults spend 5 hours and 57 minutes a day on average watching video. That counts live and time-shifted TV on apps, websites, set-top boxes , connected DVD players and game consoles. And is 11 minutes longer than last quarter. About 6 of the 11-minutes come from TV-connected devices. Those aged 18-34 now spend 43 percent of their time consuming media on digital platforms (phones, tablets, computers), with around a third of that time taking place on smartphones.

Microsoft Joins Movies Anywhere at Last- Microsoft briefly hosted a page announcing it had joined Movies Anywhere. That would mean movies from participating studios could be bought on the Microsoft store and viewed on other platforms and vice versa. iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu, and FandagoNOW are the current partners and movies from Disney, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros are included. No word on why Microsoft pulled down the announcement.

MoviePass keeps plan at $10, but limits subscribers to three movies a month- MoviePass has had quite the week! Since last we spoke, MoviePass announced it would raise its price to $15 a month and confirmed it will blackout big movie releases. Well that all changed again today. The plan will stay at $10 a month but starting August 15 it will have a limit of three movies a month with an up to $5 discount for movies beyond the first three. That applies to all new subscribers as well as everyone at the end of their current subscription period whether that's monthly or yearly. Peak pricing, and ticket stub vetification are also going away. MoviePass says 85% of its users see three or fewer movies a month. Rival company Sinemia offers a 3 movie per month plan for $15/mo, but also offers advance purchasing and premium formats .

CBS launches local news streaming services- CBS announced a program called CBSN Local to deliver local news to viewers of its CBSN cord-cutting news service. It will include morning, mid-day and evening local newscasts produced specifically for CBSN Local, as well as breaking news. New York will launch first, followed by LA.

YouTube will produce original shows for viewers in Mexico, India, Japan, and more- YouTube head of original programming Susanne Daniels told Reuters that YouTube will make more original shows for Japan, France, India, Germany, and Mexico and other international markets. YouTube plans to make music documentaries, scripted shows, reality shows, and talk shows all produced in local languages. YouTube has seen success with a Hindi-language talk show and a K-pop reality show.

I am so close to getting my wife and kids to agree to cutting our cable sub. We will pay £80 British pounds plus subs for streaming services. Which, after Brexit, is nearly a nickel!!

The issue I have is finding a workable “ecosystem” (Brian’s second favourite phrase after “Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow”.)

The problem is getting everything in one place. Netflix is integrated in the tv with its own button but sluggish and clunky via the Amazon Fire Stick. Neither Amazon nor our smart tv have an app for Now TV (Sky’s streaming service where a lot of HBO stuff ends up on in the UK) so that would mean buying another stick!

As they say in Blazing Saddles “Sticks, we don’t need more stinking Sticks!!”

I really want one box with one remote control that I can enter and exit all of my subscription services from.

Help me Cordkillers, you’re my only hope.

- Stefan

Hey Killers,

I experienced liking a spin off before the original when my wife was watching Torchwood.

I started watching it with her part way through as I saw a strange low budget sci fi show that was decently entertaining.

YEARS later we fell in love with (the new) Dr. Who series and were plesently surprised when Capt. Jack Harkness was introduced.

Keep up the great work!

- Brandon

Good day, Cordkillers crew.

I jumped ship from Moviepass about a month ago, which was a great decisions considering the services current predicaments. I decided to roll with Sinemia because I wanted flexibility in theater options, and the $7.99 price point for two movies a month fit my needs very well. However, I still haven’t received my card, which has required me to use their advance ticket function to use Sinemia’s services. Doing so requires a few extra steps that involves purchasing the tickets elsewhere like Fandago or Movietickets.com, which is annoying, but the biggest thing that grinds my gears is having to pay the convenience fees that these other service charge.

I hit Sinemia up on Twitter to gripe about this issue, not really expecting a response, but they got back to me fairly quickly, apologizing for not delivering my card and offering work arounds to avoid fees. Their first suggestion is to purchase tickets directly from theaters and signing up for rewards programs, which often wave convenience fees. The second suggestion, which was unknown to me, is purchasing movie tickets through Facebook.

Turns out earlier this year Facebook launched a program that takes care of the convenience fees for you, just to help keep you in the Facebook ecosystem. (Probably doesn’t hurt that they get data about the movies you’re going to see.) If you go to facebook.com/movie_ticketing, you can purchase tickets without paying convenience fees, which helps offset my annoyances with Sinemia until I get my card, but is also a handy tip for anyone that generally likes purchasing movie tickets online outside of a subscription service.